unded by the darkness, the houses looked stunted like gravestones,
with a line of black trees above their roofs that loomed shadowy and
cloud-like. Only in the furthest corner of the expanse was the light of
a solitary street lamp bearing a resemblance to the disk of a
stationary, resplendent dandelion.

Over everything was melancholy. Far from inviting was the general
outlook. So much was this the case that, had, at that moment, anyone
stolen upon me from behind the bushes and dealt me a sudden blow on the
head, I should merely have sunk to earth without attempting to see who
my assailant had been.

Often, in those days, was I in this mood, for it clave to me as
faithfully as a dog--never did it wholly leave me.

"It was for men like THOSE that this fair earth of ours was bestowed
upon us!" I thought to myself.

Suddenly, with a clatter, someone ran out of the door of the tavern,
slid down the steps, fell headlong at their foot, quickly regained his
equilibrium, and disappeared in the darkness after exclaiming in a
threatening voice:

"Oh, I'LL pay you out! I'LL skin you, you damned...!"

Whereafter two figures that also appeared in the doorway said as they
stood talking to one another:

"You heard him threaten to fire the place, did you not?"

"Yes, I did. But why should he want to fire it?"

"Because he is a dangerous rascal."

Presently, slinging my wallet upon my back, I pursued my onward way
along a street that was fenced on either side with a tall palisade. As
I proceeded, long grasses kept catching at my feet and rustling drily.
And so warm was the night as to render the payment of a lodging fee
superfluous; and the more so since in the neighbourhood of the
cemetery, where an advanced guard of young pines had pushed forward to
the cemetery wall and littered the sandy ground, with a carpet of red,
dry cones, there were sleeping-places prepared in advance.

Suddenly from the darkness there emerged, to recoil again, a man's tall
figure.

"Who is that? Who is it?" asked the hoarse, nervous voice of Gubin in
dissipation of the deathlike stillness.

Which said, he and I fell into step with one another. As we proceeded
he inquired whence I had come, and why I was still abroad. Whereafter
he extended to me, as to an old acquaintance, the invitation:

"Will you come and sleep at my place? My house is near here, and as for
work, I will find you a job tomorrow. In fact, as it happens, I am
needing a man t